Caleb Fowler was a resident of the West Patent of North Castle, where he owned a good deal of property. He was surrogate in 1761-66. His son Jonathan (one of the twelve children) was appointed one of the executors of his will, which instrument, dated in the year 1760, was ofi'ered for probate September 14, 1784. The persons already mentioned appear by the court records to have been the presiding judges of the County Court of Common Pleas during the colonial period and at the times respectively given. The list differs somewhat from that given in the New York Civil List or in Bolton's History, but is believed to be substantially correct.

From May, 1776, until May, 1778, the Court of Common Pleas held no session in Westchester County. After the latter date there was a principal or "first" judge, as he was called, in this court, and a number of associate judges. Sometimes there was as many as five associate judges at one time.

Robert Graham, of White Plains, was the first to fill this oflice of " first "judge. A biographical notice of this distinguished man is given elsewhere.

Stephen Ward, of East Chester, appointed in 1784, was for many years " first " judge of the County Court of Common Pleas. " He was the son of Edmund Ward, of East Chester, for a long time a member of the Colonial Assembly, and grandson of Edmund Ward, of Fairfield, Conn., who removed to East Chester about the latter period of the seventeenth century." Hon. Stephen Ward was an ardent patriot, and was proscribed at an early period of the Revolution by the Loyalist party and a price set upon his head. " Ward's house " was the scene of several engagements between the Americans and the British, and was finally burned down by the latter in 1778.